Determinants of successful parallel wire technique in percutaneous coronary intervention to coronary chronic total occlusion

Background: Many techniques and concepts have been developed in the field of percutaneous coronary intervention to chronic total occlusion (CTO). Parallel wire technique (PWT) is still an important technique in antegrade approach. The purpose of this study was to identify the determinants of successful PWT in coronary CTO. Methods: We reviewed consecutive 451 CTO lesions that were treated with PCI in our medical center. The overall success rate of PCI to CTO during the study period was 92.2 % (416/451). Of 451 CTO lesions, we excluded 333 CTO lesions in which PTW was not performed. We included 118 CTO lesions in which PWT was performed, and divided them into the successful PWT group (n = 65) and the unsuccessful PWT group (n = 53) according to the procedure success of PWT. Multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed to find the determinants of successful PWT. Results: The prevalence of the sufficient clarity of CTO exit site was significantly higher in the successful PWT group (46.2 %) than in the unsuccessful PWT group (11.3 %) (p < 0.01). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the J-CTO score was inversely associated with successful PWT (OR 0.66, 95 % CI 0.44-0.99, P = 0.04), whereas the sufficient clarity of CTO exit site was associated with successful PWT (OR 5.16, 95 % CI 1.75-15.20, P < 0.01). Conclusions: The J-CTO score was inversely associated with successful PWT, whereas the sufficient clarity of CTO exit site was associated with successful PWT. The low J-CTO score and the sufficient clarity of CTO exit site may be the determinants of successful PWT.